Specifications:This lens establishes a new benchmark as a standard lens, extending from a wide 28mm all the way to 105mm telephoto, all with a fast constant 2.8 maximum aperture. The use of four large diameter aspherical elements and three LD glass elements reduces various aberrations while minimizing the fall-off of light at the corners. Tamron's Integrated-Focusing Cam system, Internal Focusing system and Triple-Cam zoom system all combine to permit a body that at the 28mm zoom position is very compact, with excellent optical performance. Also, a new Anti-Slip-Mode
mechanism is incorporated for the first time.

Anti-Slip Mode-A new Tamron mechanism that prevents the lens barrel from sliding outward under its own weight.

I didn't know how good this lens really was until I started comparing it to other lenses like the Nikon 24-120 VR. The Tamron gets sharper photos in every situation, except when the Nikon is at 24mm wide open with VR on at less than 1/15s handheld. Even at 1/160s, f8, 70mm the Tamron is perfectly sharp while the Nikon is soft by about 8-10 pixels (6.1Mp Nikon D70). See my post here. When compared to my Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro, which is said to be one of the sharpest lenses (and in my tests was just as sharp as the Nikon 60mm f2.8 Macro), the Tamron yields the exact same results.

As seen by the other reviews here, there must be some major variations in quality with these lenses. I read that it is very difficult and expensive to produce, but I must have gotten a good one. I also hear that the Canon version is of less quality than the Nikon mount version I'm using, but I wouldn't know about that. I am unable to reproduce Mr645's review results. The focal point of a shot at f8 for me is perfectly as sharp as at f2.8 in my samples. The only difference is about a 3% change in contrast. That's practically nothing.

Regarding slow autofocus, mine is as fast as the Nikon 24-120 VR or Nikon 17-70 DX or the old Nikon 70-210 F4-5.6 D. The Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro is definitely slow, compared to the Tamron. In shooting fast paced wedding reception events I've never missed a shot waiting for the AF. The AF seems to be more accurate than other lenses as well, since I've experienced much more focus hunting with the Nikon 24-120 VR.

By the way, the Tamron is very good at getting big lens flares on your photos, hence the need for the humungous hood.

Anyway, if you can find one that's made the way it's supposed to be, it will be an great lens.

Aug 1, 2005

gmooneyOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: May 3, 2004Location: United StatesPosts: 2

Review Date: May 19, 2005

Recommend? no |
Price paid: $950.00
| Rating: 3

Pros:

Not many. POS!!! or Piece of CRAP!!!
Great sharpness.

Cons:

I bought this over the Nikon 28-70 due to price and its reach. Big mistake.
fair focusing, but slow. Hard to focus in low light. Lens would not communicate with the camera often, so sent it in for repair. They changed the chip inside. Form there it fell apart. Literally!!!
Picture this, your standing infront of a wedding coordinator. You sling your camera over your shoulder at the reception, and as you sling it over your shoulder the lens seperates body mount. Less then a year old and it was in repair three times.
But this is where it gets good... Sent it back in for repair. Repair said it was my fault. They had no record of it ever being repaired. Faxed over the copies I had for the three repairs. Tamron said "thats nice" however you can still pay for the repair. Thats when i called the president of the company. Then it was fixed.

Being desperate for a 2.8 that could marry up to my Sigma 120-300 made me buy this lens.
It's solid, seems well made, and weight is acceptable for a 2.8 with this sort of range.
The AF is very slow and I generally use it manually for moving subjects.
It is a Dr. Jeckyll/Mr.Hyde lens when it comes to results. It can produce some of the sharpest images I have ever seen in 70% of the situations I use it, 20% it is merely average and 10% it's crap ! At it's worst when shooting backlit wider than f5 or when shooting something white in bright sunlight wider than f5.

Apr 1, 2005

Mr645OfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Jun 7, 2002Location: United StatesPosts: 1304

Review Date: Mar 26, 2005

Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 3

Pros:

No one else makes a 2.8 lens with such range

Cons:

Focusing a bit slow, optical performance poor, contruction avg.

The point of having a fast lens is so it can be shot in low light conditions. The 28-105 F2.8 is very, very soft at F2.8, virtually useless in my opinion. It needs to be at F4.5 or smaller for acceptable results. You would be better off with the Canon 28-105 f3.5-4.5 lens since it is sharper, smaller, lighter, better handling. I returned this one after testing

Mar 26, 2005

JMShortOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Mar 18, 2003Location: United StatesPosts: 296

Review Date: Mar 2, 2005

Recommend? no |
Price paid: $800.00
| Rating: 5

Pros:

The zoom range is nice. I found it to be ok optically, but not spectacular.

Cons:

Very slow auto-focus. A structurally week construction. Too expensive for the quality.

I bought this lens back in 1996 or 1997 I believe. It is a very large lens and very weakly designed for the amount of extention when it zooms to the longer focal lengths. I had to send this lens in for structural repairs several times, as did a colleague. The auto focus is way to slow for any kind of action. It was a lot to carry around and it did not stand up to the rigors of day-to-day photojournalism. I replaced it a few years back and it needs some sort of upgrade as it will not work on any of my 3 dslr bodies: It causes a err99 message without fail. Then again, I bought it 8 or 9 years ago.

Mar 2, 2005

Peter KwokOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Feb 10, 2004Location: United StatesPosts: 5

Review Date: Mar 1, 2005

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $750.00
| Rating: 8

Pros:

Good zoom range, f2.8, rugged built, 6 year warranty

Cons:

82mm filter size, weight

I bought it in 1997 for my film Canon SLR. Optically, it is better than all my cheapo Canon consumer grade lens. After 5 years, its aperture motor broke. Tamron fixed it for free, including a complete cleaning.
One minor complain, although the 82mm lens cap feels solid, it falls apart when dropped. It is not easy to find all the pieces, including two tiny springs. Fortunately, Tamron sent me replacements.
However, with 1.6x crop D-SLR, it is not wide enough. Now, the 17-40L is my walk around lens.
You can see some samples at http://www.pbase.com/peterkwok/tamron28105